The lands of the frozen North are inhospitable and unyielding. Thus the human inhabitants long ago took up the practice of raiding the relativly rich inhabitants of more southerly lands. Masters of the deadly shallow-drafted longboat, they are able to ply their bloody trade inland by rivers and onto shores otherwise unassailable. They seek out all opportunities for money and delight in battle for they believe that the only way to achieve a pleasant afterlife is to suffer death in combat. It is of little suprise that some of these warlike and rapacious folk have found their way to Mordheim to share in the wealth of the wyrdstone.

Starting Funds

The warband starts with 500 gc to spend as it wishes following unit numbers and weapons restrictions.

Choice of Warriors

A Norscan Reaver band must include a minimum of 3 models, and can have a maximum of 15 models including 5 Heros and 1 leader. A starting warband must be lead by a Reaver Lord, but should he be killed they may not acquire another; a new leader will step forth from amongst the members of the band.

Struggle for Power

Norscan Reavers believe that authority should only be held by those with the power to keep it. Therefore if the Reaver Lord or subsequent Leader dies then the bands best surviving warriors must struggle to prove themselves worthy of assuming his place. Identify the warriors with the highest Leadership value, then look at total Experience points. The 2 models with the highest Leadership and Experience values are the candidates for Leadership.
      Unlike other warbands, the potential new Leaders must actually fight amongst themselves for the position. This Power Struggle should be conducted in the presence of the player who killed the existing leader, who should assume control of the cadidate with the lower Experience total.
      The two candidates fight in a 6" circle, starting at opposite sides. The model with the highest Initiative gets to go first, with a die roll to settle ties. They fight until one of the candidates is put out of action. The winner becomes the new Leader and the loser rolls on the serious injury table.

Additionally, due to the draconian nature of the Norscans, the Leader is also considered to be Dead if he is ever Captured or is Thrown in the Pits and fails to defeat the Pit Fighter, as no Leader should ever be so weak as to allow such a thing to happen. In the eventuality of these events, the Leader is shunned by his band and is considered to be Dead. They will not ransom him or accept him back into the band.

Finally, a Power Struggle will occur while the Leader is still alive if any of the following come to pass:

1. A Hero with an equvalent Leadership to the Leader ever equals or exceeds the Leaders Experience point total
2. A Hero ever exceeds the Leaders Leadership ability,
3. The Leader suffers any Serious Injury result between 22 and 35 (the warrior with the next highest Leadership and Experience challenges the injured Leader)

Recruitment

The Norscan Reavers are fewer in numbers than many of the other groups staking their claims in Mordheim. To represent this, it is harder for them to recruit replacements than other human warbands. When a Norscan warband wishes to employ new members a Hero of the band must look for other Norscans in the area, in a similar manner to looking for rare goods. However, rather than finding a lone individual the Heroes are more likely to find a group of survivors from other Norscan Reaver bands.
      The difficulty for finding such a band is a 9, and d6 Norscans are found. The composition of those found is unimportant; the Norscan player can hire any applicable type of Norscan warrior as they wish, but they must hire all of the models found or he cannot hire any of them as the potential recruits refuse to seperate due to loyalty to their fellow survivors.
      If the warband cannot afford all of the warriors available or cannot fit them within the warbands size limit then the available Norscans refuse to split up and cannot be taken. As many Heros as are available may look for new recruits, thus several available groups of various sizes may be found and the Player may choose which ones he hires. Note that Heroes looking for new recruits cannot do anything else in the campaign phase, such as look for goods or Dramatis Personae.

Hirelings

The following Hired Swords will work for the Norscans:

• Pit Fighter
• Warlock
• Freelancer
• Troll Slayer

Dramatis Personae

Of the Dramatis Personae listed in the Mordheim rulebook, only Johann the Knife will work for a Norscan band. Of the Dramatis Personae presented on this site the following will work with a Norscans band:

• Bulwyf
• Lysander the Red (Charges double)
• Rufio du Hastur
• Darius von Waldenstein

Heroes

Henchmen

Special Abilities

Hardy Breed: The Norscans are a hardy breed as a rule and all of the weaker ones tend to die off young. Therefore, all Norscans have a starting Toughness of 4 except for the Younglings.

The Norscans favor Axes and Swords and their two handed equivalents, but some also wield giant blunt or spiked weapons called Mauls that act as either hammers or 2-handed hammers, and more rarely some use a Morning Star.
      As to Armor, the seaborne Norscans generally only wear light armor that can either be swam in or gotten out of in a hurry so that they don't sink if they fall into the water. Therefore they may only start with Light Armor, but the longer a warband fights landbound in Mordheim the more likely they are to acquire suits of heavier armor.
      Norscans shun blackpowder weapons on principal and will NEVER use them, primarily because it is difficult to keep powder dry on Longboats and in the frozen North, but also because they are generally a superstitious people and dont trust such arcane implements.

Special Equipment

Throwing Axes: The Norscans wield axes which they use as normal in Hand to Hand combat, but can also throw them at short range.

Starting Experience

Special Skills

Norscan Heroes have access to the new Norscan Skill list. The Ulfwerener has access to the appropriately named Ulfwerener Skill list.

Heroes

Henchmen

Playing a Norscan Force

A Norscan Reaver band has several obvious advantages, but these are balanced by some significant disadvantages. The primary reason to play the Norscans rather than, say, the very similar Middenheimers is for their Viking flavor. Other reasons include a desire for a less homogenous force; all of the human mercenary bands can start to look an awful lot alike. On a more system level perspective, the Norscans are very much a HtH force, and have a good mix of interesting Heros.

Pros of the Norscan force

1. Large number of Hero types. The extra variety provides for an opportunity to shape a different force from other Norscan players; by taking the Ulwerener and the Bersaerks a player commits himself to a very charge-happy HtH force, whereas with the selection of Wayfinders and Younglings armed with bows, a player has more of a skirmishing force; and finally with an even mix the player has a relatively well balanced force.

2. The Norscan Special Skills. A solid mix of skills accounts for both direct combat abilities and for less confrontational abilities. The various special Charge attacks allow a player to build a very potent and flavorful HtH force, where as the various Leadership abilities ensure that the Norscans stick around in the fight, and finally the Skald ability allows a Norscan force to be somewhat less affected by bad luck in critical situations.  

3. The Ulfwerener. With his increased profile and Ulfwerener abilities, the Ulfwerener fills the niche usually reserved for a Wizard in other warbands. He has the potential to be more dangerous than the Vampire, and provides the Norscans with solid punching power. With the right skills and statistic raises, he will quickly become a dangerous foe suitably tough to give even the most skilled warrior pause.

4. High Toughness and Leadership. The Norscans are going to stay in a fight for a long time. It also means they are less likely to be put out of action and suffer Serious Injuries or Death.

Cons of the Norscan force

1. Expensive. The Norscans are very costly and therefore will start small. Every lost man will be painful.

2. Difficult Recruitment. The Norscans will have trouble growing, preventing them from building up fast and making it diffucult for them to hit max size.

3. Limited number of Hirelings available. The Norscans have to fight their own battles without much assistance. This helps ensure that they dont grow too large too fast.

4. Limited number of Henchmen Types. Just as they are rich in Hero types, the Norscans are poor in Henchmen Types. The Huscarls are potent, but once they are at max size the Reavers are merely average (other than their high toughness), and are lightly equipped.  These are the expendible members of the band and they will likely take a large number of casualties trying to keep the more important Heroes alive.

5. Internecine Quarreling. The Norscans fight amongst themselves for dominance, thereby exposing their best warriors to potential damage or death by their own hand. Everytime a Power Struggle occurs, the band might lose either it's best or second best warrior.

The Method behind the Madness

This warband was inspired by a Norscan Warband written by Tommy Punk that I found interesting, but which didnt quite hit the "Norscan" nail on the head for me. So starting from his list I started making changes. I made some significant additions and alterations in the above force list. The reasons why I made some of my decisions follow.

      The overarching idea I was aiming at was a very grim and battle hardened force with some interesting and unique features. I wanted a band of humans that were gritty and nasty, but not Chaos based. I wanted the Ulfwerener to be a Vampire-contending supernatural creature to be feared, but not so powerful that the rest of the warband is just a retinue. I also wanted the Ulfwerener to be diverse, with enough special abilities that no two are ever likely to be identical. I also wanted to add some shooty bits to give the force a little more flexibility.

      However, after I was finished adding these things I realize that I had a very Hero oriented top heavy force. It needed some mitigation to be fair. So after some thought the idea of the Power Struggle was born; this makes the band inherently racous and unstable. Additionally, I saw that if this force can build up a very large group they become unusually powerful due to the availability of frenzied models and the high toughness of starting troops; therefore I added the Recruitment special rule so that a warband will grow in spurts rather than in a smooth upward rise which helps keep the band at a managable size. Being dependent upon rare item rolls to find recruits and having to hire an entire group the Norscan player will have to both save money and send out his Heroes to look for new joins, presenting an opportunity cost.

      I also limited access to Hirelings to keep the Norscans from circumventing the Recruitment process and from spending too much money in that direction. To keep the Ulfwerener in the forefront as the monstrous option for the band I disallowed the Ogre. In the end I allowed the Warlock against my better judgement due to feedback from players who felt the Norscans needed access to some magic to be competitive, but doubled his Upkeep to make it unlikely that the Warlock will grow too powerful; since it costs as much to hire him as upkeep him, I think that most players will just hire him when they think they need the magical back up.

     In the end our local play group saw a couple of Norscan bands. They proved to be formidable and interesting, and perhaps a trifle overpowered, though opinion on this varied and basically came down to forces that rely on Fear having issues with many in the Norscan band being immune or resistant to it in one fashion or another (Frenzy, the Huscarl Band of Brothers ability, the Norscan Insane Courage Skill). Other bands lacking Fear stood up to the Norscans better, and in particular the Norscans seemed to have problems with Elf and Skaven bands for various reasons.

      Personally I think they are basically balanced, but may be a bit butch in leagues with a lot of Undead and Possessed; this is just going by the overall league standings from our local play group. While the Norscans did well in some pairings (vs Undead and Possessed mostly), they also did poorly in others (Elf, Skaven, shooty Halfling) and basically broke even in some others (Dwarfs and Orcs mostly), and by no means burned a hole in the standings.